Here too.
Great! I got the video. I think you hit it right on the head. Leaving the USB was the possible cause of that. It never hurts to do a full power off and on after the updates! I pulled the plug completely from my unit at home for about 30 min after the update.
Thanks!
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Is there any need to pull all of the inputs for firmware upgrades. I recall Ted recommending disconnecting i2S in the past. I was only using USB and my i2s inputs were shorted with HDMI plugs that have pins 1-12 shorted.
Not with the Mk II. With the Mk I, I2S sources that provided 5V could keep the DS from fully powering off and reinitilizing. With the Mk II thereās a diode to keep energy from flowing in the I2S 5V line to the Mk II (as well as the I2S inputs being on separate power supplies from the rest of the box.)
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Aw shucks, Iāve been away since the 8th and wonāt be back home until the 20th. Canāt wait to fire the system back up and hear it for myself. Thanks to Ted and anyone who helped with Massive. Happy New Year everyone.
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Did you use both FPGAs for this release? Did the overall signal to noise ratio improve more compared to plots you shared for the MK2 Beta due to Massive?
Iām only using one FPGA at this time. Itās about 1/2 full now.
The S/N ratio of DSD based DACs isnāt a teribly useful measurement. The noise is a different spectrum than the spectrum of the signal and the quality of the noise (how white it is) makes a huge difference in perceived quality. In general more white noise allows DSD to sound better and more colored noise causes it to sound worse.
The current release has lower high frequency noise up to about 100k than the initial release and less low level distortion in the audio band.
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I assume more precise definition of āBreakin time will depend on how long each previous release was installed." would add "during music playbackā - am I correct?
In that case Iām doomed as my unit plays almost all the time 24x7 from the moment it replaced my MK1 (therefore also from the moment Massive Beta was loaded) 
Iām doing that making sure the all the digital part of chain is being āburned-inā (or staying in good condition) - including Etherregen/SFP+ modules, streamer etc.
As we are on the burn-in topic - I usually play classical music DSD256 album on repeat (to max data throughput) , but recently was thinking that maybe I should either play 44@16 pcm , or have a mix of formats, to make sure also all the upsampler parts of FPGA would burn-in. Also, for the digital part I assume the content (waveforms) is not important, or would it make sense to also include some tracks playing almost full-scale volume to trigger some āhigh bitsā areas on FPGA?
Wonderful! I had no noise problems, probably because my āBHK Signature Preamplifierā does a very good job, however, even though I am just testing this new firmware version and the āMasiveā, just seeing the numbers (Bit rate) bigger is a plus. Update went smoothly.
It is not going to be easy to perceive a difference in the sound, which was already good, however, the technical improvements they announce should be reflected in the sound quality.
Itās more complicated, burn-in time is separate for each ātransistorā, āwireā and āswitchā in the FPGA. Different releases burn-in different parts of the FPGA. And every release burns-in each component differently than other releases. Some need actual music, most donāt, some need changing data, many have active clocks no matter whatā¦
No, itās just that some may never have used the initial release or some never used PCMā¦
Play the kind of music you usually play. Burning in parts of the FPGA that you never use doesnāt help burn in other parts of the FPGA.
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New firmware and final Massive installed.
First note(no burn-in) of the first track:
I heard a significant difference. Woah, how is this even possible. If this sounded like over excitement, maybe it is, but letās just dail my improvment score back from 10 to 5, the improvment is still significant.
The contrast between the notesā peak trancients and decays is more pronounced and realistic, so I can hear the delicate fingering(force) Horowitz applied the keys way more than before.
Congratz to Paul, Ted and PS Audio for this release.
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Good time to follow-up with a Massive special on the DSD Mk II, pre-Axpona.
@tedsmith, Ted, with this massive release, Iād expect to hear more performance gaps between my Wiim pro streamer vs my DIY streamer with hi-end clocks installed. But I just heard the opposite, the gap narrowed, itās still there but now I have to pay attention to hear it.
Care to share any light on that? Thanks and nice to see you posting again!
Iām only speculating here, but the new FPGA code uses a separate clock for just outputing the final DSD bits so in theory itās less sensitive to any clock noise or clock jitter on the inputs. (Tho that should already be a very low sensitivity.) Also the new code is less sensitive to power and ground noises on the inputs. So better clocks in a source may have less of an effect with the current FPGA software.
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The thing I noticed last night is that the foot pedal mechanisms are now incessantly loud. I suppose that is a good thing if you buy the cheaper front row tickets at the symphony.
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Savings on streaming gear. Hopefully Paul wonāt make you remove this feature.
But did notice I still like ground lifted better. With ground on USB the reverb seems to go up three notches and recording spaces sound larger or like they added echo during mastering. I expected the inverse. Any clue why that is?
Grounding is a very system specific issue. Better grounding can lower noise with some systems (imagine shielding on cables) and better ground isolation can help in others (imagine breaking ground loops.) Not that one way or the other is good or bad, just which way you like things in your system better.
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Both updates were quick and smooth. Congrats to Ted and the PSA Team on another significant accomplishment, and itās great to have Ted back on the forum! We really missed you, but any time you need to take a break from the forum to actually get something like this done, thatās fine with me.
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I am using an inakustik air pure silver USB cable. That seems to bring in more detail with ground active. Older recordings a lot more tape noise seems present and the recording space reverb increases withe massive final release. However highs are better with ground lifted and tape noise and reverb lower.
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Upgrade not working. Just flashing. Help!!